If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting to @buckblunders or with hashtag #BuckBlunders. You can also email the blunder via email at info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting to @buckblunders or with hashtag #BuckBlunders. You can also email the blunder via email at info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 - Buck Martinez said that Cespedes had a three run triple last night, when it was a three run single. (Contributed by @JackCox, @tpop7, and @origmichael)

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting to @buckblunders or with hashtag #BuckBlunders. You can also email the blunder via email at info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting to @buckblunders or with hashtag #BuckBlunders. You can also email the blunder via email at info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 - First game back in the big leagues and we sure do miss Carlos Snider Buck! (Contributed by @davestanleylfc)

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Bautista has been providing protection to batters in front of him. Does BPA really work or is it a myth?

Every now and then, the phrase “Providing Protection” is used in baseball to describe a batter “protecting” the batter in front of him. In Toronto, Jose Bautista is the guy who provides this “protection”. Bautista has been playing like an MVP this year and has been touted as the most feared hitter in the league. More or less, a pitcher will probably not want to challenge Bautista because of the potential damage he can do and the pitcher most definitely does not want to put guys on base in front of Bautista to further increase the risk of damage. This means that pitchers will usually challenge the batter before Bautista, resulting in juicier pitches to pounce on. Thus, Jose Bautista has been employing his, shall we call it “Bautista Protection Agency” or “BPA” (This is a parady of APA or Acolytes Protection Agency used in the WWE) for anyone that hits in front of him. I have been gathering stats to see just how good his protection is. These stats were taken from www.baseball-reference.com. It does not include any games that Bautista didn’t play (3 games – Child Birth, 5 games – Neck strain, 3 games – Ankle sprain) or at bats for the 2nd hitter where Bautista has already been taken out of the game. I am also assuming that Bautista will be hitting 3rd for the entire season.

August (4 G)

Grand Total as of August 5th, 2011 (102 G)

461 PA – .264/.301/.414 w/ 10 HR, 54 RBI, 62 R, 23 BB, 90 SO

These numbers are decent, but I think the hitters could have done slightly better with Bautista hitting behind them. Some of the numbers could be skewed a bit, since Rasmus played 7 games in the 2 spot and he had to do some adjusting to the new league (NL to AL). If we take those 30 PA, we get: .273/.311/.427 w/ 10 HR, 51 RBI, 60 R, 22 BB, and 83 SO. It’s hard to imagine that Corey Patterson had sooooo many chances in the 2 hole as he played 56 games batting 2nd. That’s more than half the games (55%) and that was probably way to many games for someone who we thought sucked and is no longer with the team. Let’s take a closer look at individual player performance. I really only wanted to compare a few players because the sample size of some players were just way to small.

Patterson’s averages were slightly down without BPA, but not by much. The telling story are the averages per plate appearances. The only significant positives was that he drew more walks and struck out less without BPA. The other stats are way down without BPA. So you could say that “Tropic Thunder” really misses his BPA. It didn’t really matter though because he’s no longer around and i’m cool with that… Still don’t know how you can be in the league when you can’t play defense properly.

Eric Thames has got to be the one who’s benefited the most from BPA. Looking at his averages as the dip is incredible from .333 to .195 in batting average alone! WOW! Thames also doesn’t even have a plus category without BPA. We saw him being re-inserted into the 2 hole on Friday, August 5th vs. Baltimore and maybe the Blue Jays saw the same stats that I’m seeing now. I’d like to see Thames ride out this season in the 2 spot, but I also have another suggestion on who should be there later on in the post.

Although a very small sample size, Yunel Escobar was one of the Blue Jays players who did not benefit much from BPA. Yunel Escobar was slated to be the every day 2 hitter in front of Bautista, but Rajai Davis got hurt early and ever since that injury, he’s hit lead off throughout most of the season. If there were more PA for Yunel with BPA, the stats would have more weight, but other than that, this was just a small example of someone who didn’t benefit from BPA.

So does BPA make a huge difference? I would have to say that BPA has been a very helpful factor for the two players who have batted in front of “El Fuerte”. Combining Corey Patterson and Eric Thames games played (80 G which is 78% of the games), these two players’ stats have shown huge improvements when employing BPA. If Colby Rasums plays more games hitting 2nd, i’m sure he would eventually start to show stats that would tell us BPA works, though I don’t see him returning to the 2 spot anytime soon.

Also, I would like to mention something that has crossed my mind. Ever since I heard the interview with AA on “Prime Time” via Fan590, AA said that Snider and Thames were the two candidates to be sent down when Brett Lawrie comes up. AA said that Thames had a better July than Snider and that was primarily the factor in bumping Snider back down to AAA. Now, if you look at the stats for July, Thames hit in the 2nd spot for most of the month and he generated some pretty impressive numbers. When he was removed from BPA after Rasmus came along, look how bad he performed. In 5 games, 24 PA, he only had 1 hit (HR) and 9 SO. One can argue that it isn’t fair to say Thames had a better July than Snider because Snider didn’t have the benefit of BPA. One could also argue that Snider should be able to hit anywhere in the lineup if he is that good. Nonetheless, I think it is only fair that Travis Snider be allowed to hit 2nd and see if his stats shows improvement with BPA. I’m sure you would see him hitting much, much better with BPA.

So, for the rest of the season, I will have weekly BPA stats since it seems kinda fun to see how well the batter before Bautista does every game. I leave you off with a poll… Who do you think should hit in front of Bautista and would benefit the most from BPA?

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 – Buck Martinez was affected by Colby Rasmus as he said the next three batters up were Hill, Snider, and Thames, but it was Thames, Hill, and Snider.. Probably not use to Thames so low in the lineup. (Contributed by @andythequizzer)

Buck Blunder 5 – Now let’s go to Jamie for an upgrade… You mean update Buck! (Contributed by @fukingconky)

Buck Blunder 6 – Buck Martinez said that 3rd base was 1st when Jose Bautista almost got Vlady out at 3rd when he was at 1st. (Contributed by @seanmacey13 and @BlueJayGal)

Buck Blunder 7 – Buck Martinez said “they went to 2nd to get the lead runner” but there was another runner going to 3rd — the real lead runner. (Contributed by @ImpressiveWebs)

Buck Blunder 8 – After the Jays scored 2 more runs to make it 8-4, he said that the Blue Jays got back those two runs in those two innings they gave up those 2 runs. (Contributed by @GuzmansJhercurl and @AlanClough)

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 2 – Buck Martinez was talking about baseball games that can be seen on Sportsnet tomorrow. He said that the Rays and Athletics would be on Sportsnet West, when the TV said Pacific.

Buck Blunder 3 – Buck Martinez said that Alexei Ogando has given up 3 hits in 3 innings, but he’s pitched 4 innings. (Contributed by @AlanClough)

Buck Blunder 4 – According to wikipedia.org, In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities. According to Buck Martinez, a five-tool player in baseball is a player who excels in run, hit, throw, hit, hit for power. Great job Buck. (Contributed by @blandy12 and @coolhead2010)

Buck Blunder 6 – Buck Martinez said that Robbie Alomar was the first Blue Jay player to make it into the Hall Of Fame. I think the wording is off here because he should have said he is the first player going into the Hall Of fame as a Toronto Blue Jays. (Contributed by @JerrySchaq)

Buck Blunder 7 – Buck Martinez has a new name for JP Arencibia. Welcome Jake Arencibia.. I think he got confused with Jake Arrieta. (Contributed by @BlueJayGal)

Buck Blunder 8 – Buck Martinez mentioned that Alexei Ogando was 7-1 in 10 starts. Well he’s actually 10-3 in 18 starts (not including this game), and even if he was referring to last 10 starts, Ogando is 6-3. (Contributed by @mikecrime)

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 – Buck Martinez starts the pre game off with an Edwin Snider call.. Not as cool as Travis Thames! (Contributed by @LFri45)

Buck Blunder 2 – Buck Martinez was telling the viewers how many times Jose Bautista walked yesterday. First he said 2, then he said that he got intentionally walked, so he said it was 3. Then he thought about it, and went back to 2. (Contributed by @_skennedy and @alittlehghas)

Buck Blunder 3 – Ricky Romero appeared to have struck out Ichiro, but the umpire said it was a foul tip. Buck Martinez was talking to Paul Beeston and said thank you for your time. Then he saw it was not a strikeout and told Paul to hold up. (Contributed by @BlueJaysRant and @jordangeville)

Buck Blunder 4 – When Jose Bautista hit a double to left, Brendan Ryan was going to throw home to get Eric Thames out, but he didn’t. Buck Martinez goes.. Here’s the thr… no throw! (Contributed by @AndyMc9293)

Buck Blunder 6 – Not really a Buck Blunder, but when Buck Martinez said he talked to Michael Pineda, Tabby asked him if they were standing or sitting. He said sitting because if they were standing, he would look like a midget. OMG! It’s little people Buck. Way to offend a lot of people!

Buck Blunder 7 – Buck Martinez said, “Jose Bautista now has 6…7… RBI of the season.” He totally didn’t sounds sure of himself. I had a feeling he was going to change the number. Later on, he goes, sorry, I short changed Jose Bautista. He has 68 RBI. )

Buck Blunder 8 – Buck Martinez said that Ricky had 8 strikeouts today. He short changed him to. He had 9. (Contributed by @twit_terrific and @jordangeville)

Buck Blunder 9 – In the top of the 8th, the Seattle Mariners loaded the bases up and cleared it with Miguel Olivo’s blast. Then 2 more got on base. Buck Martinez said that the bases were loaded again after the 2nd hit after the grand slam. I didn’t know he can see invisible people. (Contributed by @coolhead2010, @kantianallstar, @jaygammy, and @JuLiaNs_World)

Buck Blunder 10 – Buck Martinez said that Adam Kennedy checked his swing, but he really swung on that pitch… “Checked his swing… Went too far”.

If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 – “Molina’s not going to wait any longer, going to coax Molina back into the strike zone”… Great job Buck Martinez. Good job, cause you know Brandon Morrow is pitching right. (Contributed by @BlueJayGal, @CdnMod, and @shocktopbanana)

Buck Blunder 2 – Buck Martinez said that the June Draft was the “June Free Agent Draft”. (Contributed by @ShakeelSalamath)

Buck Blunder 5 – Buck Martinez said that Ricky Henderson played more than 1 year with the Blue Jays, saying he played with the Blue Jays for years. Everyone knows he was a rental player in ’93. (Contributed by @GuzmansJhercurl)

Buck Blunder 6 – Buck Martinez said that Rajai Davis “stealed” third in the 9th. First of all, “stealed” is not a word, and Davis only stole 2nd and advance to third on Olivo’s error. (Contributed by @alittlehghas)